Pink Floyd – Poitiers 1972 (Siréne-105)

Disc 1 (46:51): Speak To Me, Breathe, On The Run, Time, Breathe (Reprise), The Great Gig In The Sky, Money, Us & Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse

Disc 2 (45:59): One Of These Days, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Echoes

The tape source for Pink Floyd’s Poitiers gig first appeared on a commercial title was Any Colour You Like on Triangle (PYCD 045) released in 1990. Siréne’s predecessor label Ayanami issued an improved copy as Any Colour You Like. Unlike the Triangle release, the Ayanami was closer to the master and sounded much better.

Siréne’s Poitiers 1972 is an improvement upon all previous titles being more complete and running at the correct speed. It is a good to very good audience tape recorded a distance from the stage. The music sounds slightly fuzzy with the instruments sounding indistinct in louder passages.

The master cassette is lost and the show is incomplete missing “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” and there is a slight drop out near 5:44 in “Any Colour You Like”. But Siréne has the tune-ups before “One Of These Days” and twenty second more of Roger’s talking before “Echoes” making this the most complete edition available.

The band’s winter tour of Europe has been very well documented with the shows in Hamburg (Eclipse On Hamburg, Highland (HL 651/652)), Boblingen (Boblingen ’72, Shout To The Top (STTP 130/131)) and Frankfurt (One Of Germany Night, Highland (HL 628/629) and Frankfurt Stop Over) all seeing major silver releases over the past couple of years.

The Poitiers gig shares the same slick and professional delivery as the others. “On The Run” has Gilmour producing an expressionistic haze over Wright’s thumping organ and sounds very effective.

People have noted that “Careful With That Axe Eugene” is very good from this show and I agree. It sounds very mysterious like something out of Apocalypse Now. “Echoes” is introduced as “the one about the Scots part runner” and is very compact. Siréne again use the thick glossy inserts with relevant photos from the era and is another Floyd title worth having.